It’s clearly evident from our time with the Red Devil VEGA 56, that PowerColor has maximized the potential of the AMD hardware/technology they’ve been given. On the table is a very capable piece of kit which is able to offer great performance, both out of the box and with a secondary overclock.
The arrival of Vega custom design graphics cards comes at a rather odd moment in time and for gamers this is somewhat tainted by the impact that Cryptocurrency has made on the market – driving prices up and supply down.
In the Red Devil we have a burly graphics card which is adorned in an all-metal design. There is no mistaking the attention to detail with construction of this card and we’re pleased to see a few other extra features making an appearance which will no doubt be useful to some gamers – additional HDMI for VR support, triple BIOS profile (including a silent mode).
On the previous pages we switched Red Devil into its fastest profile mode – OC. The results demonstrate how this PowerColor card can contend with the likes of NVIDIA’s GTX 1070, 1070 Ti and in some cases even the GTX 1080.
The most notable advantage to using this Vega 56 card is in scenarios where the resolution shifts above 1080p. The rear IO panel alludes to the very fact that WQHD and 4K are the primary focus. So if you are gaming at 1440p and 4K then this Vega 56 should offer better performance in most gaming titles.
While it may be said that Vega 56 is a watered down version of Vega 64, this isn’t strictly true. We may be getting Stream Processors and slower clock speeds, we do benefit from the full 8GB HBM2 and if you fancy saving yourself some cash, our overclock highlights how easy it is to nudge up the GPU/memory clock speeds to within the realms of the 64. This overclocking prowess is mostly down to PowerColor’s excellent 12-phase power design – we were able to apply a 16% overclock to the GPU and 18% to the memory, translating to better performance in-game!
One thing which stands in favour of the AMD route is Freesync – monitors using this technology are much more affordable. In fact, most of the displays which sit at the lower-end of the market are more often than not Freesync ready, whilst NVIDIA G-Sync will demand more from your wallet.
The elephant in the room is quite obviously the price. Prices could/are changing as supply alters, but at the moment Red Devil Vega 56 is positioned at £799 GBP / $1000 USD – putting it into similar territory as the GTX 1070 Ti and GTX 1080. The Red Devil does a great job at rivalling both these cards at their current price but we’re hopeful that once more cards hit the channel and mining diminishes that pricing could be even more competitive.
Is Vega 56 worth a second look? PowerColor has done an excellent job with their Red Devil variant of Vega 56 but this is somewhat overshadowed by the skyrocketing price inflation currently plaguing the GPU market.
Pros
+ Attractive design
+ Top-class build quality
+ Excellent performance, especially at high-end
+ Low noise cooling solution
+ Three pre-defined BIOS profiles
+ Great overclocking headroom
+ AMD Freesync displays are cheaper
+ Additional HDMI port for VR
+ 3-year warranty
Cons
- Appeals only to red themes
- Large and weighty
- Expensive
+ Attractive design
+ Top-class build quality
+ Excellent performance, especially at high-end
+ Low noise cooling solution
+ Three pre-defined BIOS profiles
+ Great overclocking headroom
+ AMD Freesync displays are cheaper
+ Additional HDMI port for VR
+ 3-year warranty
Cons
- Appeals only to red themes
- Large and weighty
- Expensive
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